Monday, May 19, 2008

Got an email from MZone reader Matt telling us to take a look at Big Ten commish Jim Delany's Wikipedia page, specifically the "Influence" section. As Matt wrote, "You should probably hurry before someone takes it down."

He's right. Here's why...

Funniest thing about that Wiki post? The "[2]" where they actually cite a reference and strive to give proper documentation to their "complete and utter douchebag" assertion.

Who says Wikipedia hasn't fixed any problems with their fact checking?

I think that implementing a playoff system is rather like implementing social health reform. There are too many benefiting from the current system that have too loud of a voice to allow such a change. If there is some way to show benefit to those who are currently benefiting, then there may be some hope.

You should check out the history on his wikipedia page. After the "douchebag" comment was removed, people made a bunch of changes. Such as:"Delanye has also done everything in his power to cater to the desires of Ohio State and Michigan, much to the malign of the rest of the conference. This includes hiring and retaining referees that give favorable calls to Michigan, most notably when they play perennial conference stepchild, Penn State. Once Delaney steps down, there is hope all conference members will be treated equally."

As part of a paper she was writing about not citing Wikipedia as a source, a friend of mine added her brother -- a current U-M student -- as a past president of EMU. It did get fixed eventually. (But considering the problems they've had there, I guess that's almost plausible...)

The main point of her paper was simply that the only really reliable way to use Wikipedia is simply to find actual reliable sources in the citations. Using Wikipedia as a source, she said, isn't much different than using a classmate's paper as a source.

A playoff never happening is kind of aggrivating. As I heard someone say earlier, by putting in a playoff- the regular season becomes less important (even though it'll still be a great feat to be in the top 4 nationally at the end of the season, as opposed to just the top 2).

There's no doubt it would help, because then there wouldn't be any of this "USC and LSU are co-champs" garbage. I would have loved to have seen a Nebraska-Michigan game in 1997 too.

Delaney being called a "douchebag" on one of the internet's most frequented sites = very funny.

P.S. - 4 days until the new Indiana Jones movie comes out...(Mike shreiks like a little school-girl)...

The problem I see is that any playoff system they come up with will perpetuate the status quo in the college football world. One of the nice things about the NCAA Basketball Tournament is that every team has an equal shot of winning it. And every conference has at least one entry in it. That would not be the case in a football tourney, unless they go to a 64 team format, which would be unlikely.

I'm probably one of the few folks in America that actually like the bowl system (although I don't like the BCS). And unless they address the above issue, I don't want to see a playoff.

My roommate works for Chicago 2016 and Jim Delaney sits on their board. My roommate was putting together a presser for some event they were having and decided to look on Wikipedia for some background information on Delaney. Knowing I would enjoy the post, he told me to go to Jim Delaney's wikipedia page, which I did. Finding it hilarious, I thought I would share it with Benny and Yost, who would appreciate it.

I'm in favor of a plus-one format. However I am apparently in the minority. Most people either like the current system or want 16 - 32 teams. I think that's crazy. I shiver at the thought of more than 8 teams being added to a tournament style format.

IMO nobody outside the top 8 has any room to cry foul. 8 teams would be mean 6 conference champions with 2 at-large bids. If you can't make that cut, then don't whine about not getting your shot. But even a +1 would at least cut down on the number of teams p1ssing and moaning about how they got passed up.

Besides, I would actually prefer my OSU boys to have some sort of tune up prior to an NC game instead sitting on their duffs for 50+ days. But I guess that kind of talk is on hold for another 6 years or so.

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